Tips
Improve candle performance
Trim the wick to approximately 5mm before you light the candle. This helps the wick perform better, and makes your candle last longer.
Burning a candle for the first time.
In order to prevent ‘tunnelling’ where the wick burns a narrow hole through the centre of the candle, always burn the candle for one hour for each inch diameter when lighting for the first time. For example a 3” candle should be burnt for a minimum of 3 hours. This will help reduce the chances of tunnelling, and achieve the maximum pool of wax for the wick.
Achieving a professional finish on the top of your candle.
Many types of wax shrink when cooling. Keep some wax back, 10-15%, to enable a second pour, and even a third pour if necessary. Let the candle cool for an hour then remelt the held back wax and repour. This will give you a smooth even finish on the top of your candle.
Centering your wick
We have found iced lolly sticks are perfect . Simply drill a hole through the stick and thread the wick through the hole. Use a little blue tac to hold the wick firm, and adjust the stick to centre the wick as necessary.
Types of wax
We sell wax which is designed to best meet your needs.
Container wax for any candle where the wax is held in a container such as a jar, tin, teacup etc. This wax is designed not to shrink on cooling significantly, and to cling to the sides of your container. We sell two types, Sasol paraffin container wax – a superb quality professional wax which hopefully only will need one pour, and Ecosoya CB-Xcel natural wax – the best we can find.
Pillar wax which is designed to set in a mould and then be released from the mould. Pillar wax shrinks on cooling and therefore self releases from the mould when it is cooled. Again we offer two types, Sasol blended paraffin wax and Ecosoya Pillar blend.
How much wax is needed for my container?
A very rough guide to measure wax needed is to measure the amount of water it holds. Then convert this into grams for wax, so a container holding 100ml of water will need approximately 100g wax.
Here is a video from our friends at Cargill on how to get the best from your wax: https://www.cargill.com/bioindustrial/naturewax-vegetable-waxes-pouring-solutions